We finally made the decision that there was nothing more useful to do with the rear fuselage open, and having finished the roll bar installation, it was time to get riveting on the Turtle deck. With an Internationally famous cave explorer in the family, it was no big deal to slide Louise back in the tail cone to catch the rear-most set of rivets (F-809 ? F-810) on the longerons, and I slid in for my share up forward. Using flexible flanges on the F-808 and F-809 bulkheads really made the rear skin fit smooth, with no puckers. We needed a couple of shims on the F-810, but they were easy to insert, and that joint is under the empennage fairings so no one will ever see it (except us during the annual).
It actually only took about 3 - 4 hours to do all the riveting, with a couple of breaks for thermal recovery ? it is, after all, Texas in the summertime. We used a regular house fan to force air down the fuselage to cool the ?bucker?, and filled the floor areas between bulkheads with rolled-up blankets to distribute the loads. More blankets on top made it comfy, and a headlamp made it easy to see (and it was cooler than a drop-light). The Tungsten bucking bar set was outstanding ? worth its weight in?.well?tungsten I guess!
Speleologist Louise examining a particularly interesting bauxite Cavern:
Finished Turtle Deck (well, those few clecos were finished later on):
Louise built very lightweight close-out panels (0.016 aluminum with fabric) for the baggage compartment:
Paul
